


Jared Kleinman is straight

by ThatsCrazyRandom



Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: M/M, spoiler alert: Jared is not straight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-14
Updated: 2017-11-14
Packaged: 2019-02-02 09:12:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12723732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatsCrazyRandom/pseuds/ThatsCrazyRandom
Summary: Jared Kleinman is straight. Really he is.The fact that he's seen Evan Hansen naked more times than he could count is just a by-product of sharing a studio apartment, which is just another way to save money.Jared Kleinman isn't gay. He's just trying to save money.





	Jared Kleinman is straight

**Author's Note:**

> Rated Teen for swearing and minor mentions of sex
> 
> Beta'd by the wonderful Sarah from the DEH Discord.

Jared Kleinman is straight. Really he is.  
The fact that he regularly showers with his best friend doesn’t mean anything. They’re just... bros who cared about saving water.  
It’s just like how the reason they shared a bed in their studio apartment was only to save money so they could afford to eat on their measly part-time job wages.  
The fact that he’s seen Evan Hansen naked more times than he could count is just a by-product of sharing the studio apartment, which is just another way to save money.  
Jared Kleinman isn’t gay. He’s just trying to save money.

Jared Kleinman is straight. Maybe. He isn’t so sure anymore.  
It’s all Michael’s fault. He stayed over last weekend and didn’t understand how he and Evan worked.  
Two guys showering together isn’t gay. It doesn’t matter if they share a bed.  
Michael doesn’t know shit and Jared told him that when Michael confronted him.

“I didn’t know you and Hansen were dating. Why didn’t you tell us?” Michael had smirked, as they walked out of their class.  
“What? Me and Evan aren’t dating.” Jared said in confusion.  
“I saw you guys sleeping together last weekend.” Michael laughed.  
“So? That’s because we don’t have room for a second bed.”  
“You guys showered together.” He raised an eyebrow.  
“We’re saving water! And money on the water bill.” Jared protested.  
“Kleinman, that's gay. I would know.”  
“It is not, shut up Mell.”  
He shoved him lightly and the conversation was dropped.

Jared isn’t gay. He can’t be. It would ruin everything.

Jared Kleinman is maybe a tiny bit gay for his best friend.  
He hasn’t been able to stop thinking about it since Michael had mentioned it.  
It made him feel awkward about stuff he normally didn’t care about.  
He feels awkward showering with Evan and sleeping beside him. He feels awkward when they walk in on each other naked.  
He hates it. Evan’s starting to notice as well.  
He has to talk to Michael about it. Michael’s gay, he’ll know what to do.

“Michael, you made me gay,” Jared says when they’re just about finished studying.  
“Excuse me?” Michael asks.  
“You made me gay. Ever since you said I was gay, I’ve been having gay thoughts about Evan!” He confesses.  
Michael rolls his eyes. “You can’t make someone gay. Ever consider that maybe you were just gay all along and didn’t know it?”  
“I’m not gay, Mikey! I think I would know. I’ve been with girls before. I was into it.”  
That was a lie. Kind of. He was into it, but he wasn’t that into it. He doesn’t understand the appeal of two lumps of fat on a girls chest. What do you do with them? And he saw a girls vagina once, but he doesn’t get how that works either. Where do you stick it? But of course, he can’t tell Michael any of this.  
“Jared, that’s like saying you can’t be fat because you enjoyed a salad before.”  
Jared huffs. “How did you know you were gay?”  
“I just sorta.. knew. The whole finding guys attractive thing was a big hint, as was the fact I didn’t get what the fuss was about over how hot a girl was.”  
Well shit. Jared had been finding Evan attractive for the past week since Michael talked to him about it.  
“I’m not gay,” Jared says.  
“Alright man, it’s cool.” Michael shrugs. “What did you get for question 5?”

Jared Kleinman is gay for Evan Hansen. Only for Evan Hansen. Not a fully fledged homosexual, Evan-sexual if you will.  
He feels better now that he accepted the fact. It’s still a little awkward, especially after the first time Jared got off to the thought of Evan, but he managed.  
He was able to act normal around Evan now, which meant their friendship wasn’t in any danger, as long as Evan didn’t find out. That would be disastrous.

Jared Kleinman might be.. Gay. A full homosexual, Not Evan-sexual, not half-homo. A full-on rainbow flag gay.  
He had been finding other guys attractive after his little revelation. Not as attractive as he found Evan, but attractive. More attractive than girls.  
He had told Michael, who thought it was great, but the idiot encouraged him to tell Evan.

“Mikey I think I’m gay,” Jared confessed quietly, which was weird for him.  
He knew he had no reason to be nervous, but he couldn’t help it.  
Michael paused his video game. “Really dude? That’s cool. Thanks for telling me.” He said, smiling in the Michael-way that made everyone want to smile back, which Jared did.  
“No problem?” Jared shrugged.  
“Am I the first person you’ve told?”  
Jared nodded.  
“You should tell Evan,” he said, grabbing a drink of one of his weird 90s soft drinks.  
“No fucking way,” Jared said firmly.  
Michael grinned cheekily, but thankfully dropped the idea.  
“So are you finally going to come to the Rainbow Bar with me?”  
Jared rolled his eyes. “I’m not that gay.” He said, and Michael laughed, going back to his game.

Jared Kleinman is going crazy.  
He wanted to tell Evan about his feelings, (because that’s what they were now, feelings for his straight best friend) but he wouldn’t be able to handle it when Evan rejected him.  
He knew Evan would be nice about it, he wouldn’t stop living with Jared, or anything, because that’s the kind of person he was, but it would change everything about their friendship.  
Jared wasn’t sure if he could handle that.

Jared Kleinman kissed a boy. Repeat. Jared Kleinman **kissed a boy.**  
It was amazing. So much better than any awkward experience with some girl.  
Michael had gay friends. Gay friends who Jared was introduced to with the words, “This is Jared, he’s only a baby gay, be nice.”  
They were nice people. The boy who kissed Jared was a taller boy named Jake and he had said that he didn’t mind that Jared had no experience, and laughed kindly when Jared messed up.  
They kissed for a long time, and even though both of them knew there was no feelings, it was special to Jared.  
He came back to his and Evan’s apartment on a blissful high and marathoned the Jurassic Park movies with Evan.

Jared Kleinman might die if Evan doesn’t reply to his text.  
Michael, Jake and the rest of Michael’s friends had finally convinced him to tell Evan his sexuality and Jared was… scared shitless.  
Their entire dynamic could change because of this. What if Evan wants to move out?  
_Ding!_ Fuck. There’s the reply. _Ding!_ Did Jared say he wanted a reply? Because he regrets it now, no reply was much much better.  
He hesitantly picks up the phone.

 **[Insanely Cool Jared]:** hey ev.. gotta tell you something  
**[Insanely Cool Jared]:** so uh.. recently i figured out im gay.  
**[Insanely Cool Jared]:** surprise! yup. dont be a dick about it.  
**[Insanely Cool Jared]:** ha. dick. im gay evan.

 **[Treevan]:** Oh really? Uh do you have a boyfriend or something? You should invite him over.  
**[Treevan]:** I was actually going to talk you about that. I think I could maybe be Bisexual? I’ll talk to you at home.

Jared Kleinman is McFreaking out.  
EVAN HANSEN COULD BE BISEXUAL!  
Do you know what this means? Jared has a chance, albeit a slim one, but more than he did before!  
Suddenly his crush doesn’t feel as hopeless, and he gets a pep in his step the rest of the day; he even makes dinner while he waits for Evan to get home from his evening class.

Jared Kleinman is going crazy (the reprise!).  
He is full of nervous energy by the time it gets to 8:00 pm. Evan’s lecture finishes now, so he’s going to be home in almost 15 minutes.  
Jared has already made dinner and washes the dishes, cleaned the benches and the stove.  
He’s tried dancing, calling Michael (who ditched him for his freaking boyfriend, who wanted attention) (seriously rude Jeremy, Jared needed advice).  
He tried jumping on his and Evan’s bed like Evan’s told him he shouldn’t a million times.  
He’s down to aimlessly wandering around the apartment looking for something to do.  
His coursework is mocking him from the kitchen bench, but he knows he won’t be able to focus long enough to do it until after Evan comes home.

“Jared?” Evan calls as he walks into the apartment.  
Jared seems to spring up out of nowhere.  
“Evan! Hi, long time no see.” Jared says.  
“Hey Jared.” Evan smiles when he sees him.  
Jared tries not to look too much into it, they were best friends after all.  
“I made dinner.” Jared says, skipping into the kitchen as Evan dumped his own coursework on the bench beside Jared’s.  
Jared got out two bowls of food for them, and began heating them.  
Evan’s smile grew. “Thank Jar.”  
Jared let out a big breath as they stood opposite each other.  
“How was class?” He asks, attempting to make small talk.  
“Yeah it was alright. Glad it’s over though,” Evan jokes.  
They’re silent until the food comes out of the microwave.  
Jared slides it across to Evan and puts in the other bowl.  
There is a few more seconds of silence until Jared cracks.  
“Can we please just talk about the elephant in the room before I explode?” He blurts out.  
Evan blinks. “Oh um, right.” He says, putting his food down.  
“So you’re gay?” He asked.  
Jared nodded, “Yeah..”  
“How do you know..?”  
“Oh um.. I talked to Mikey? And I kissed a boy, and I really liked it.” He admits.  
Evan nods awkwardly. “Do you have a boyfriend?”  
“Nah.” Jared laughs.  
They go back to that god awful silence that Jared can’t stand.  
“So you think you’re bi?” Jared asks.  
“Yeah um.. I talked to Connor actually? Because he’s gay and gets that stuff? Which was weird because of everything that happened with Zoe in high school but I told him about how I’d been feeling about this one guy in particular and he showed me the term and I think it fits? I’m not sure? I think I still like girls more but as I said there’s this one guy..” Evan rambles.  
Jared feels his heart sink. Evan likes another boy.  
“Oh um.” Jared mumbles, feeling like he’s about to cry. It takes all his energy not too. “Are you going to ask him out?”  
“N-no!” Evan blushes dark, “I don’t want to ruin our friendship. Besides, I didn’t even know if he liked guys until today.”  
“Until today?”  
“Oh did I say today.. I meant yesterday?”  
Jared slowly feels his hope building. What are the chances that another guy came out to Evan on the exact same day?  
“I have something else to tell you.” Jared declares, bolstered by his rising hopes.  
“Oh? What is it? You said you didn’t have a boyfriend.”  
“I really fucking like you Evan. You made me realize I was gay.” He blurts out before he can overthink it.  
Evan freezes. “M-me?”  
“Yes you, you freaking nerd. And god, I hate it, because I don’t want to ruin our friendship and trust me, if you hate me for it, I’ll move out, and I’ll even help you find a new roommate. I just needed to tell you now or I never would and you deserve to know.” Jared rushes out.  
Jared can see the wheels turning in Evan’s head, before all of a sudden Evan is moving and there are lips pressed against his.  
It takes him a moment to realize, and his brain short-circuits.  
Evan is kissing him. Evan Hansen is kissing him.  
Jared kisses back with every fiber of his being.

Jared Kleinman is dating Evan Hansen.  
Jared’s mothers are thrilled, and so is Heidi.  
When Jared calls Mikey to tell him in a yelled and excited message, Michael just laughs and says he called it. But he gets a text from him after telling him he’s happy for them.  
Connor rolls his eyes and tells them not to use too much PDA around him.  
Jake beams at him and hugs him tight, before sharing that he’s also got a boyfriend now; so Jared promises they’ll go on a double date sometime.

Jared Kleinman is **_not_ ** straight. He is as gay as the rainbow flag, and happily in love with Evan Hansen, who loves him back.  
He still lives in a studio apartment with his best friend, and they still share a bed.  
They don’t shower together as often, but that’s only because there is a much higher chance they’ll be late for class if they do then there was before.

Jared Kleinman fucking loves his life.  
(And if anyone asks Michael, it was all him)

 


End file.
